Just recycled an old computer!

[d-cosner]

Got a couple HP small form factor computers for doing some work for a friend. Specs are P4 2.8 GHz, Intel 945 graphics, 3.5 GB of DDR 2 RAM, 250 GB Seagate SATA hard drive, CD-ROM, Intel on-board sound, Intel on-board NIC. I had to install the RAM and hard drive but I just pulled them from other junk machines.

Much to my surprise, 64 bit Ubuntu 14.04 runs real nice on this hardware! I originally was working on one of them that had an NVidea GT 8400 graphics card added but after hours of frustration I tried the one that was still using the on-board graphics, it worked like a charm! I installed Ubuntu to the hard drive using another computer that had a DVD-ROM and then just put it back in the HP.

I still can't believe how nice this computer runs! It was manufactured in 2005, the inside was clean, really clean! The case had a lot of stickers from HP and the college that used it had asset tags all over it but I almost have all of them off. The computer looks and runs great! I was going to sell this computer but now I am having second thoughts!

[QIII]

In the last few months I have gotten, refurbished and sold 7 of the SFF Dells -- all about that vintage.

They are great for people just getting interested in Linux or kids in school taking classes. You can pick them up, fix them up and sell them for cheap and everyone is happy.

[d-cosner]

I think I am going to keep an eye out for more machines like this one. I did a little mild tweaking and this thing runs just about as good as my main desktop. I can see people being happy with a system like this. It was just hard to believe that 64 bit Ubuntu runs so well with these specs, it's 10 years old!

[sudodus]

Re-cycling is a good alternative :KS

I have an old Dell Dimension 4600 with P4 2.8 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM and nvidia NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] graphics, which runs with the nouveu driver. I bought it in January 2004, easy to remember because it is the computer name. Nowadays I use it to test Ubuntu flavours and community re-spins based on Ubuntu.

Which desktop environment are you running in your Ubuntu system? Unity or some lighter version of gnome? Did you try Xubuntu or Lubuntu?

What about playing video? I find Lubuntu or plain Openbox more responsive for video than the other desktop environments of the Ubuntu flavours.

[craig10x]

@sudodus: He's running ubuntu with unity on it! And it's running fine... I know because we pm and he mentioned it to me before he posted this thread...I'm sure he will be along later in the day and tell you more ;)

[sudodus]

Great news :KS

It means that Unity needs less horsepower than before. Of course there are 3.5 GB RAM, but the processor is a P4.

[d-cosner]

sudodus, I am running Unity on the P4 system. Videos play surprisingly well! I started working with a P4 system that had an NVidea GT 8400 but the open source driver was not working on it... The system ran with the original install but as soon as I updated it, it would no longer boot up. I switched the hard drive and RAM over to the system that was still using the Intel 945 on-board graphics and it booted right up!

I went with Ubuntu with Unity because I was out of blank DVD's and most new users seem happy with Unity. I would have tried Xubuntu if Ubuntu would not have worked. I figure the LTS should continue to work on the computer and it would keep the computer useful as is until 2019. Who ever ends up with the computer will kind of have a new computer experience from a 10 year old system. After removing all the stickers that were plastered all over it, it looks like a new computer too.

I used to see systems like this sell for $15.00 on craigslist all the time but of course now that I found a way to make them nice I am not seeing any listed...

[sudodus]

You'll find more of them, if you keep looking ;-)

[d-cosner]

You'll find more of them, if you keep looking :wink:




I hope so. The factory I worked for just permanently laid off me and 149 others...

[craig10x]

Also, i'd like to mention that although my laptop (which is a 4 year old toshiba 17" which is also my desktop) has sandybridge (i3 core) and 4 gb ram, i often check my system monitor and it's rare that i use much more then about 1gb of ram and i am running 14.10 with unity...While not a very old computer of course, still ram usage is not that heavy... really with unity these days...:)

[sudodus]

You might even start a small business and offer to wipe HDDs of computers (with a certificate, that the data are permanently wiped). Companies and organisations want to replace old computers and need that service. And you would get professional class computers that you can sell 'second-hand' with Ubuntu (or if the buyer insists, Windows).

[kurt18947]

re Nvidia 8400 - if you can get a machine to boot with that card, I'd recommend trying the Nvidia driver available in additional drivers. I'm running AMD processor/MoBo boxes and find the nouveau drivers lacking. I did see where kernel 3.19 is supposed to have nouveau tweaks.

[d-cosner]

I might try the NVidea card again when I find some RAM to get the other computer going. A dedicated graphics card might make the system preform a little better. I did some mild tweaking on the system I got running though and it plays videos just fine. My 6 and 9 year old boys are using an old computer with a P4 and Xubuntu installed, they manage to play on-line games on it. The kid's computer only has 1 GB of RAM and a 30 GB IDE hard drive. They are rough on computers so I give them machines that I can live with them breaking!

[ventrical]

Most anything with onboard Intel Graphics is worth restoring and trying latest versions of Ubuntu. I am always finding gems., ie. like an old ASUS board and a handful of 3.25GHz Celeron HT processors with 45nm lithography which I am able to overclock to 5.120GHz on fan cooling only.

It's a riot. :)


Regards..

[d-cosner]

@ ventrical

Yes, I have read about your overclocked system in a thread and I saw a video you made not too long ago in the development section. You were an inspiration for trying Ubuntu on the P4 system I have! Recently I read about a company that was recycling old computers with Ubuntu, they were also using P4's and the set up was similar to what I have.

It's really nice to see an older computer being so useful again! I did some software tweaking to the system I recycled and for the most part I would never know I was on a 10 year old computer. I did notice a little tearing in Firefox if I was playing a video and scrolling a web page. If I run the video on another virtual desktop the problem is solved though. I ran the computer for a few days and that was the only issue I came across.

This was the most fun project I have tried in a long time and someone will end up with a pretty nice system that should run nice until the LTS reaches EOL in 2019.

[SeijiSensei]

I might try the NVidea card again when I find some RAM to get the other computer going. A dedicated graphics card might make the system preform a little better.
The 8400 supports "VDPAU" which off-loads decoding of the H.264 video codec to dedicated circuitry in the chip. The proprietary driver will use VDPAU to improve the machine's ability to play HD video.

[Linuxratty]

You might even start a small business and offer to wipe HDDs of computers (with a certificate, that the data are permanently wiped). Companies and organisations want to replace old computers and need that service. And you would get professional class computers that you can sell 'second-hand' with Ubuntu (or if the buyer insists, Windows).

I like this! I have recently gotten a refurbished Dell Optiplex 745 that had W7 on it..W7 didn't last long. :D

[alex361]

I have about 2 old devices i am thinking how they perform if i just install ubunutu on them

[mörgæs]

For everybody into the sport of recycling old computers I have collected some advice. See more in the link in my signature.

[d-cosner]

@ mörgæs

Glad you got in on this thread! You made me re-think this through. I switched the P4 system over to Xubuntu 14.04 x64, it meant more work but the computer runs even better and the graphics glitches are gone. Off to do the tweaking all over again...

[mikodo]

Thanks, guys and gals.

I've been talking about this for months now, on how I have to upgrade my only desktop computer.

I'm bent towards recycling older cars, furniture and stuff, and it goes against "my grain" to do the same with this computer.

I was reading 3 days ago, on how Best Buy in Canada has amalgamated/downsized their stores, just to Best Buy, to reduce redundancy in some areas.

I checked their specials on consumer desktops on line during this reading, and started thinking, oh what the heck, I'm going to just get a new one.

Your posts, got me back to proper thinking.

My computer (http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay?javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette. cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.prp_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01 =wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c01230545-2%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.tpst=ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce0 1&ac.admitted=1415566867690.876444892.492883150). I don't need advice. I've had lots here already, on what to do. I just really need to find the impetus, to get at it. :)

Thanks.

[d-cosner]

I finished up the P4 system last night, it far exceeded my expectations! I installed Xubuntu 14.04 x64 and upgraded Xfce to 4.12. I turned off all the start up apps that were not needed and set the swappiness to 10. Installed the numix theme and numix circle icons and found a nice wallpaper. The finished system looks and runs great!

My thinking on selling computers is that I will not sell a computer that I would not like using myself, so this is for sure a success! Memory use at start up is 220 MB and the system feels nice and quick! Application launch is almost instant on just about everything. I kept most of the Xubuntu default apps except I switched out the default music player for Audacious, it's light and just looks better to me.

The graphics problems I had with Unity on this system are gone in Xfce, no tearing at all with vsync enabled. No problems with full screen flash or any multimedia playback at all! This 10 year old computer runs just as nice as my newer systems do. It took some trial and error to get the computer running this nice but it sure was worth it in the end.:D

[sudodus]

Congratulations :KS

[d-cosner]

Thanks! I am real happy how it all turned out. :D

[mörgæs]

Good to see, enjoy.
Please spread the word, there are many old computers out there which deserve a second youth.

[ethan26]

I am very interested in learning more about computers and am always on the lookout for any old junk computer.
Thanks and happy easter! :D

[yoshii]

This is really encouraging! I recently acquired a used eliteBook HP computer. HP's seem a bit more stable to me than Dell's, but that's just in my limited experiences. Anyways, I saved the Lubuntu ISO onto a flashdrive, then bought the computer with Windows 7 on it and burned the ISO. Then I booted the Lubuntu ISO and deleted Windows and made some nicer partitions and installed Lubuntu on it and transferred some nice Windows programs onto the new Lubuntu install and installed anubu updated Wine.

This system is so smooth! All this using a free wifi hotspot for downloads. Life is good!

Lubuntu seems easier to configure than Ubuntu Studio. I mainly do multimedia stuff, but this Lubuntu seems good enough so far. So I'm really happy and feeling the love people are talking about with Lubuntu.

Peace. Kindness to Humanity!

[sudodus]

A friend gave me his old desktop computer with Windows XP. I wiped the HDD with DBAN and installed Xubuntu 14.04 LTS plus some extra software, for example LibreOffice and Skype. Another friend needed the computer, and could have it without cost (except for coming during the Easter holiday to fetch it and bring it home) :-)

[malspa]

First home computer I bought was a new one, back in 2001. Since then, almost every computer I've had, I picked up used (some refurbished) and then installed Linux on 'em. The four computers I have right now, all were used -- one was given to me for free, one cost me $50, another one cost me about $150, and one about $200. No great machines to brag about, but they all run Linux just fine.

I keep telling myself that one day I'm gonna buy a nice, new computer from a Linux vendor. Maybe after my kid gets out of college. But, I don't know, when you can pick up a used computer for cheap and throw Linux on it, that's hard to beat.

[ventrical]

A friend gave me his old desktop computer with Windows XP. I wiped the HDD with DBAN and installed Xubuntu 14.04 LTS plus some extra software, for example LibreOffice and Skype. Another friend needed the computer, and could have it without cost (except for coming during the Easter holiday to fetch it and bring it home) :-)

I do a lot of consultations and builds for people all about me. I like to stay on the cuting edge and experiment with new stuff and even try to brick surplus systems :) I also collect vintage ICs. When I build a system from surplus form factors people keep in touch with me when older stuff comes around like 8080a, Zilog Z80s 80186s .. etc .. so I get to create my collection of processors for cheap. :)

[sudodus]

I do a lot of consultations and builds for people all about me. I like to stay on the cuting edge and experiment with new stuff and even try to brick surplus systems :) I also collect vintage ICs. When I build a system from surplus form factors people keep in touch with me when older stuff comes around like 8080a, Zilog Z80s 80186s .. etc .. so I get to create my collection of processors for cheap. :)

That sounds like a lot of fun :-)

[ventrical]

Yes.. it is a lot of fun :).. but the real fun part is being able to *match* the right motherboard to the right hdd and video card.. or to put it in a better light .. to build a hybrid system and make it do what engineers and technicians say is impossible to do. Getting a stable overclock is one of those things. Or what like other posters are saying here .. to turn surplus parts into productive systems to hand off to others.

Regards..

[chileno35]

I got an old HP dc5100 MT P4 3.4 GHz 4GB RAM and 160 GB harddrive. With Lubuntu everything was running out-of-the-box. That´s the reason why i love Ubuntu!! Almost everything works and you can use your old hardware for years and years.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I have always felt good when I took several old desktop computers, and built Frankenstein computers. I would do something like swapping parts around to get 3 working desktop computers out of 4 broken computers. I installed an appropriate Linux distro on them and gave them away to people that couldn't otherwise afford them. I haven't had very much success with laptops.

[speedwell68]

All of my PCs are old. My PC is an old Acer 1310 that I have made out of 3 others. My other PC is a really old Acer 3200 that I have upgraded with bits from junked PCs. I have built a media server for my network of Kodi based Raspberry PIs, running NFS shares, from an old Acer Revo R3610, works really well. I have 3 RPIs all of which use old laptop HDDs to load Kodi and cache video streams from the NFS server. All of my machines run Lubuntu.

It is amazing what you can achieve by utilising old kit.

[d-cosner]

My main computer is made from a collection of parts from broken computers housed in a newer HP case.:)

[Olivia_Zane]

i managed to install ubuntu on a pentium 3 but that wa back in 2007, i stopped using ubuntu but now i am back. its free and powerful. i wish governments in africa could just switch to ubuntu if just to reduce the cost of operating their computer networks with no licensing fees. much needed funds could be saved and directed to social development projects

[shantiq]

the specs the OP mentions are the specs of my ONLY computer; and frankly having now added an external SSD with 14.04 and using LXDE as DE I see No reason to want to buy a newer beast than 2005 ; maybe it was just a good year like wine ::]]

with even older machines I am sure with a few tweaks they too could purr like a cat

also added 14.04 to a Macbook[not mine] from 2009 and when a lot of the apps are becoming too advanced for the hardware on the Mac boot ... the 14.04 boot side purrs like a well-oiled panther and cares not about the age

should be the biggest attraction .... UBUNTU : makes your old hardware look new and young .... and sexy

[Mike_Walsh]

...the specs the OP mentions are the specs of my ONLY computer...

...I see No reason to want to buy a newer beast than 2005 ; maybe it was just a good year like wine...

.... UBUNTU : makes your old hardware look new and young .... and sexy

^^^; +1 !!

Couldn't agree more, Shantiq! This old Compaq Presario desktop of mine is also from 2005; never given me any real problems. Upgraded from a single-core Athlon 64 to an X2 dual-core the other week. It ran well before...it flies now!

All my machines have been hand-me-downs from other members of the family. When they see what I'm doing with their old hardware, the reaction is usually along the lines of, "Well I never. I didn't think it was CAPABLE of doing that..."

How's the USB 3.0 card doing? Mine works PERFECTLY; couldn't be more pleased with it.

Regards,

Mike. ;)

[sudodus]

I think Shantiq is using eSATA to connect the external drive.

Please tell us more about your USB 3 experience. Is it fast and stable for reading and writing data? Can you even boot from it? Anyway, many people have issues with USB cards and hubs, so it would be valuable to get your hardware specs (both the computer and your USB 3 card). Is it the Compaq in your signature?

[shantiq]

Hi guys the USB 3 is fine but really it is not astounding in the acceleration it provides although it is indeed faster ... what has blown my socks off is the SSD in the external AKASA caddy with eSATA link now THAT is really worth having [one lead goes into the USB 3 the other into eSATA] the speed is astounding; programs like gimp or audacity are way faster than previously; start load-up takes 30 seconds now or less ; shutdown 4 or 5 seconds; like a laptop but on a PC. Would totally recommend it on an older machine ... it costs £90 altogether and has brought this old old machine up to date [also brought RAM to its full 3Gb capacity to help with it all]


entire process explained here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2265824)

[Mike_Walsh]

@sudodus:-

Yes, it is the machine in my signature. I'm very impressed with the USB 3.0 adapter card.....but I've made a few other modifications recently, which, taken altogether, have transformed the old girl.

I've recently upgraded the BIOS (with help from somebody on the Puppy Linux forums), and upgraded the single-core Athlon 64 3200+ CPU I had on here previously (which itself was no slouch), to a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+. This, together with now being able to transfer data to & from the external 3.0 Seagate HDD at something approaching the intended speeds, has made a BIG difference. I've also upgraded the old 300W Bestec PSU to a 500W CoolerMaster B500 (ver 2), which has the new single-rail 12V technology. This has made everything a lot more stable; I rather suspect the old Bestec was getting 'past it'!

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I'm not able to boot an O/S from the external HDD.....not for lack of trying. If I plug the Seagate back into a USB 2.0 port (I have 13 of them!), it will boot quite happily. If it's plugged into the USB 3.0 port, GRUB doesn't, apparently, see it. However, I have an awful lot of settings in the new BIOS which I haven't really experimented with yet...there may be a way to do this. I will keep you posted on any progress I manage to make.

Compaq originally aimed for the business market; the BIOS that came with the Presario was pretty basic, and wouldn't allow for much in the way of tweaking. Businesses were fine with this, as they wanted stability above all else, and obviously wouldn't want to have to 'tweak' things to get them to do the job.

Boot-up times for Xubuntu are in the order of 30-35 secs (probably more to do with my old IDE/PATA internal HDD than anything else). However, running Puppy 'TahrPup', which I also have on here, she's up & running in about 20 secs. I'm MOST impressed. Puppy, obviously, is a lot more 'lightweight' than the 'buntus; the entire thing runs in RAM, anyway...which made it blazingly fast with the old set-up. It just 'flies' now, with all the recent modifications..!

There's still a lot can be done with 'old' technology; makes me laugh when people refer to 3-yr old stuff as old....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT:- If anybody wants to try this particular upgrade, I'm going to outline the steps, as I think it's worthwhile doing:-

1) First of all, the SR1619UK is actually an HP/Compaq. It was produced shortly after HP bought out Compaq, in the last quarter of 2004. The board in question was made by MSI, under contract to HP. It's the MS-7184, known to HP as the AmethystM. It's no use trying to find it on MSI's site, as they won't even acknowledge its existence. As far as they're concerned, it's an HP board, and it's up to HP to sort any problems out.

2) We actually performed a bit of a hack to update the BIOS on this board. It originally had the Phoenix Award BIOS, ver. 3.33; quite basic, as outlined above. With some research, it turned out that HP could offer an update, to ver 3.47.....but this would not support the dual-core X2. So, with some further research by my acquaintance on the Puppy forums, it turns out that another MSI board, the MS-7093, is identical to the MS-7184, with the addition of 2 extra SATA ports. HP themselves have used this board in the Presario series, too. I can't locate it now (the webpage doesn't seem to exist any more!), but there IS an article in which HP quite clearly state that the MS-7184 (AmethystM) and the MS-7093 BOTH use the same BIOS upgrade.

3) So; we tracked down the update page for the MS-7093 (known to MSI as the RS480M2):-

http://us.msi.com/support/mb/RS480M2.html#down-bios (http://us.msi.com/support/mb/RX480M2.html#down-bios)

(This MAY come up as the RX 480M2, rather than the RS. Don't worry about this; the two boards are identical, to all intents & purposes).

If you look at the BIOS tab, it says quite clearly that you need at LEAST the 3.8 version to support the dual-cores. HP only offered the 3.47, remember. So we decided to go with the latest one, the 3.9 (even though it was released all of 9 years ago...!)

4) You download the upgrade. This is in Windows .zip format. Don't worry about this.

5) Rather than muck about with BIOS flashing facilities like you do in Windows, we followed the procedure outlined in this wiki article from ArchLinux. The principle remains the same, regardless of your chosen 'flavour':-

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#Installation_2

You'll need the 'flashrom' utility. We got it from the Puppy PM in 'Tahrpup', which, as its name suggests, is based on 'Trusty'. So, if Puppy has it, it's a fair bet that it's probably in the 'Trusty' repositories, too. Anybody like to confirm this for me?

6) Once you've installed FlashROM, simply follow the procedure in the wiki. When you're finished, and the new BIOS image is installed, you'll find that the supplied image is 'locked', and you need a password to get into the BIOS! You'll want this, because the fans will be going flat-out, and you'll need to 'reset to defaults'. But after a wee bit more research, we discovered that the password for this image is '000033'. When you get into the BIOS, just hunt for, and 'reset to defaults'. That should fix it. DON'T load 'optimised defaults', like I did...it just makes matters worse! THEN, the only fix is to use the 'Clear CMOS' jumpers on the motherboard to reset everything.....

And that, basically, is that. Now you can swap your CPUs over, and everything SHOULD be hunky-dory...

Regards,

Mike. :)

[shantiq]

Maybe we should collectively write a handbook on this site explaining how to turn an old mare into a young she-buck or a droopy old dromedary into a pedigree greyhound if you understand what I am trying to say...
Explain in detailed fashion what can be done with approximate price quotes to show buying a brand-new toy is not always the smart option when Ubuntu and Linux are at hand ... PC and Mac included
A Green initiative indeed!

[sudodus]

I think it is rather common that USB3 addons and retrofits can't do everything and typically there are problems with booting.

[sudodus]

Maybe we should collectively write a handbook on this site explaining how to turn an old mare into a young she-buck or a droopy old dromedary into a pedigree greyhound if you understand what I am trying to say...
Explain in detailed fashion what can be done with approximate price quotes to show buying a brand-new toy is not always the smart option when Ubuntu and Linux are at hand ... PC and Mac included
A Green initiative indeed!

It is a good idea. You are welcome to start. Maybe later such a handbook can be moved to our tutorial forum (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=100) or a wiki page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/) or help page (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/).

[mörgæs]

Maybe we should collectively write a handbook...

This is what I intended with the Old Hardware link. Feel free to add ideas to the thread if you are not into writing a complete wiki page.

[shantiq]

hi again guys []


by collectively i really meant a group effort; not me writing a how-to.

on the premise explained in this tale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant)
different people can bring different bits to this; all I have are the following suggestions


PLEASE ADD ! copy list below and add to the bullet-points and try to give a link to maybe a pre-existing thread or how-to
or indeed tutorial forum or a wiki page or help page.

When we have a solid list maybe then turn it into a page somewhere


To update/speed up an old machine >> do one or more of the following:


● add maximum RAM your computer will accept [mine is 3Gb for example and although I have put 4 only 3 are seen]
● add SSD (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2265824) [Solid State Drive] in an external caddy [Akasa for example] or internal if possible with eSATA connection AND install your OS there; use your internal HDD for storage [ensure eSATA is available on your older machine]
● use a light desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE [will speed things up a lot]
● for browsing use a fast pared-down Browser like Palemoon (https://www.palemoon.org/) or otter-browser (https://launchpad.net/~otter-browser/+archive/ubuntu/release) there are others but those are really fast especially otter
● ---- please add more suggestions here ----
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[john387]

nice upcycling